You remember WENDY JAMES? Transvision Vamp? The woman Elvis Costello wrote an entire album for in about an hour or two?
THIS cover girl?
Thanks to piracy, once-famous women (Carly Simon, Joni Mitchell, Janis Ian, etc.) couldn't get major label deals. As for indie artists such as WENDY JAMES, the indie route has gotten them kicked to the curb.
For a decade now, FANS OF FREE (ie, the upload and download pirates) have sneered, "the music industry is BAD, major labels are BAD, so what artists should do is GET A NEW PARADIGM."
What this PARADIGM might be? Nobody knows. Some bloggers insist, "I am giving away music for fun! If an artist objects they can tell me." Right, Wendy James or Carly's manager must go Googling all day long to find the latest pop-up blogs run by assholes, then leave a NICE comment, and hope the asshole doesn't say "I don't believe you. Prove you are Wendy or represent Carly."
The new PARADIGM was "Music should be free. Support the artist when she tours. Or buy a t-shirt." How easy is it for an indie artist such as Wendy to lug equipment around, take flights, book hotels, find venues, and make it worthwhile? How easy is it for Stagefright Carly to even get on stage if one is available?"
Another PARADIGM idea: "You keep making albums, and put them on the "new radio" sites like Spotify and Pandora. You can make streaming money. Meanwhile we'll continue to offer free downloads because, er, it's good publicity for you!" Except Spotify and Pandora pay pennies per THOUSAND hits.
ANOTHER Paradigm? Wendy James thought she was into something good with a thing called PLEDGE. Like Kickstarter and GoFundMe, PLEDGE was basically a begging bowl. Pass the hat. Make the average slob plumber or garbage man or retired pensioner feel good about tossing a fiver or a tenner at you. But be nice, network on Social Media, and make fans your FRIENDS. Answer their questions. Endure their idiocy. Then beg for spare change so you can make another album.
Jill Sobule, among other indies, opted for Kickstarter, and a prize for giving her a certain amount of money, was that she would stick your name in "The Donors Song," a clever 3 minute tune that just happened to have room to fit in some of the bigger spenders. Wendy chose PLEDGE where fans paid up front, PLEDGING to buy her new album. And...
Yes, on her FACEBOOK page, she explained that PLEDGE is now in bankruptcy. Gosh. Those mean nasty record labels of the old days have been replaced by mean nasty outfits like PLEDGE, and mean nasty streaming sites like Spotify and Pandora, and by blogger assholes who want to be disc jockeys and stars and become "famous" for having a free BLOG where they give away music.
Face the music: unless you're Taylor Swift or Justin Bieber, who have idiot young fans who will buy a CD just for the photo on the booklet, the odds of making money from an album are almost NIL. The great leveler, CD BABY, is an outfit where older artists who were once on Mercury or Warner Bros. (Gunhill Road and Ron Nagle) sit next to indie artists who are almost unknown (that would be ME and my album "Ha Ha Halloween.") CD BABY distributes our music to iTunes, Spotify, etc. etc., and we're lucky if a few hundred people listen for FREE, and if the few hundred lead to maybe a few thousand, which means lunch money for one day after a year or two.
Wendy James, like so many who ONCE were on a major label, maintains a website, a SOCIAL MEDIA presence, clings to fan support, and hopes for the best.
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